


Basil and Thyme

by Newt



Series: Newt's Twins Week! [3]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Twinsweek, some sad orphans to start your day off right, there's a taako's aunt tag nice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 11:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13523019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Newt/pseuds/Newt
Summary: Sometimes, you have to take things into your own hands. And sometimes, those hands are little and lonely and covered in dirt.This is the story of the twins’ first night on their own.





	Basil and Thyme

**Author's Note:**

> Happy angst day, everyone! Today's theme is childhood, and it's gonna be a sad one, I can feel it. Here's my contribution to that.  
> I figured that since the two-sunned world has fifteen dollar bills, all of their money would probably be in really weird divisions. Hence the hundred and fifties here.

Lup took a giant hop into the mud, sending splatters of it everywhere with an almighty squelch. Taako looked up from his perch on the bottom step, too miserable to even say anything about the flecks of mud on his dress pants.

 

“And another thing!” Lup yelled, twirling around with a finger in the air. “What is _with_ Uncle Jake’s goofy mustache? He looks like a _creep._ ”

 

Taako didn’t respond, just watching her with dull eyes, arms wrapped around legs and chin resting on knees and ears drooping down low.

 

“I wouldn’t want to live with him anyway,” she said, planting her feet more furiously in the mud. “It’s _good_ he said he can’t take us.”

 

She picked up a stick and re-carved her rapidly disappearing hopscotch game.

 

The entire bottom of her new black dress with soaked with mud, and her shoes were completely caked. She didn’t care, she didn’t care, she didn’t care. She’d wanted to wear her purple dress anyway, but the people who hadn’t even known their auntie had said no. As if Lup’s aunt would want people to wear boring black at her funeral. Lame.

 

The twins had been basically ignored through the whole service, standing alone as their only source of warmth in the world, their supporter, their home for the past six years, was lowered into the cold, hard ground. Dozens of their aunt’s friends and family hovered nearby, as the twins stood at the front of the pack, clinging to each other, tiny forms trembling in the chilly autumn air.

 

The twins had followed the rest of the family back to their aunt’s empty house, listening in as the adults’ talk moved from who got what of her things to what they were going to do with her… _less desirable_ charges. No one wanted Taako and Lup, and Taako and Lup wanted no one.

 

“Well I certainly don’t have the space for them. We’re remodeling this summer.”

 

From the second they were born, Taako and Lup’s parents had wanted nothing to do with them. Their father had abandoned ship the second their lives winked into existence, and their mother refused to even hold her children, bitter and lonely and not wanting any sort of attachment to the lives she had created.

 

“Couldn’t you use the extra hands on the farm, dad?”

 

“Ha, from two growing kids? They’d eat me out of house and home!”

 

The two had spent their formative years being tossed from relative to relative like a deflated beach ball. They never stayed long enough to settle, or establish roots, or bond with anyone besides each other. As a result, their bond was positively unbreakable.

 

“I don’t have the time for this. I won’t sacrifice my career for someone else’s kids. I won’t.”

 

Then came the best years of their young lives. Their aunt returned from her travels abroad, and took them in with enthusiasm. She was young, and sometimes careless, and inexperienced, but she gave them the kind of love that they’d been starved of for their entire lives. She spent time with them, playing games and cracking jokes and teaching them to cook. She tucked them in at night, and took pictures of their mother off of the walls when she noticed them staring. Every day, she told them she was proud of them, and they flourished under her praises.

 

“Well then I guess we’ll just have to look into the foster system. Unbelievable, all of you.”

 

They’d thought they’d finally found a permanent home with their auntie. She promised them she’d never send them away, and she’d kept that promise through even the bitterest months of her illness. Then came the darkness.

 

Unable to stand listening to the adults talking about their fates anymore, two very small and very powerless kids had ended up outside, on the front porch of their home, now cold and lonely without their aunt inside of it.

 

“And what the _fuck_ does grandpa mean we’d eat too much? Have you _seen_ cousin Arnold?” said Lup, stomping a footprint straight through one of the squares she’d drawn.

 

Taako just gave a watery laugh, too tired to tell her off for swearing.

 

“We’re _better_ than this, Taako! We’re worth a million of all of them! They don’t _deserve_ to have us in their gross, stinking houses!”

 

Taako couldn’t even look at her anymore. Her motion just made his eyes hurt. He rested his forehead on his knees, blinking wet spots into his fancy pants.

 

Lup paused in her tirade, noticing his movements. She huffed loudly, then started the hopscotch course over again, with several satisfying squelches.

 

“Lulu… is it really our fault?” asked Taako, so quietly that she could barely hear him. She whipped her head around, loose hairs sticking erratically out of her bun.

 

“No! Of course not! Stop… don’t think that…”

 

Lup felt panic burbling in her throat, her eyes burning, and stomped it out through her feet.

 

“Linda said it was,” said Taako rolling his head around to face her. “She said that auntie couldn’t afford medicine because it was costing her too much to take care of us.”

 

“That’s _bullshit!_ ” Lup burst out, and Taako frowned again at the swearing. Lup ran up and tackled him, knocking him sideways into a weepy bear hug.

 

“Stop thinking like that. Seriously. The adults are dumb, and mean, and they want us to think we took auntie for everything she had. But she never complained about any of that stuff, because it’s not _true._ She had money in that safe in her room, as backup, remember?”

 

Taako nodded slowly, a horrible thought crossing his mind.

 

“…Will,” he mumbled.

 

“What’s that, bro?”

 

“They wouldn’t let us look at her will,” he said. “I bet she left us money or something, and they don’t want us to know about i… ouch, Lulu you’re hurting me.”

 

Lup’s arms trembled in a death grip around Taako. It made sense. It all made sense, and she hated them all so much.

 

“They must think we’re _so dumb_!” she hissed in his ear. “Just cuz we’re kids, they think they know everything and we’re dumb and they can just jerk us around like it’s nothing…”

 

Her words cut off as the front door creaked open, revealing an older man with their aunt’s eyes and ears and absolutely none of her warmth.

 

“You… the dress one. You’re a girl? Taako?”

 

Lup jolted away from Taako, teeth clenched in anger.

 

“I’m _Lup_ ,” she said, trembling with rage.

 

“Right, Lup, well. There’s food in here now, if you’re hungry.”

 

Lup said nothing, turning pointedly back to Taako. The dude thought he could ignore Taako just because he was crying? Really? Why wasn’t _everyone_ crying? Didn’t they know Lup’s auntie was dead? When Lup turned back towards the door, the man was gone.

 

Lup aimed a kick at a potted plant sitting on the steps. It fell to the grass and rolled away, and she instantly felt awful. Her aunt had always taken great care of her plants.

 

“Don’t!” hissed Taako, scooping up the plant and setting it back, spilling dirt everywhere as he did. He held out his dirty hands, glaring at Lup.

 

“Whatever. You want food?” she asked, throat burning.

 

“…Okay,” said Taako, rightfully taking that as an apology.

 

He stood up, cringing as he wiped the dirt on his dress pants. As soon as his hand was free, he reached forward, and Lup reached back, and they held on, an anchor as they entered their wonderful house full of those terrible people.

 

Lup lead the way to the dining room, weaving between pairs of legs and around chairs and through hushed conversations. Mostly they were ignored, which was a good thing, really.

 

The table was set up buffet-style, with rolls and mixed vegetables and plain chicken breast. Everything was already picked over; clearly the others had had their fill before inviting the twins inside. Lup looked back to Taako, wordlessly. He rolled his eyes, and she made a face.

 

They snatched up plates, helping themselves to the spectacularly unspectacular meal. Lup couldn’t even remember the last time they’d eaten something this bland. Their aunt had always made incredible meals, and she’d taught them to do it too.

 

Lup brightened suddenly, tugging on Taako’s sleeve.

 

He turned around from buttering his roll, one eyebrow raised.

 

“I’ve got… a cunning plan,” she said, grinning mischievously.

 

“Does it involve breaking our teeth on thousand-year-old bread?” he asked.

 

“What? No.”

 

“Good. Better than the current plan, then.”

 

“Drop the bread. Let’s go.”

 

She led him by the elbow into the kitchen, dark and cold without their aunt to brighten it up. They hovered in the doorway for a moment, solemn. Lup took a single step, and the spell broke. There were dishes piled in the sink. Mixed vegetable smell punctuated the air. It was already starting to break away from the picture of the kitchen they’d known.

 

Lup dashed to the spice rack, plucking off a familiar, black shaker labelled with nothing but a drawing of a heart.

 

“This’ll fix anything. It’d be great on that chicken,” said Lup, holding it up like a trophy.

 

Taako smiled softly.

 

“Yeah.”

 

This was their aunt’s secret spice, a mixture of basil and thyme and a bunch of other stuff that, when they asked about it, their aunt would just wink and call “love”.

 

The twins sat on the kitchen floor, robotically sprinkling a bit of spice on each individual bite, faces stony in the late-afternoon darkness. It was almost like she was there with them, her signature taste awakening a thousand memories.

 

After they finished, there was a pause. Taako glanced at Lup, then pocketed the shaker. They were the only ones who would appreciate the spice, anyway. He felt a tear slide down his cheek, weepy again for everything they had of her that would fade over time. The spice would be used up, and the house would be sold, and their family would snatch up her things, and the twins would be set adrift again.

 

Lup’s face was wrinkled with concentration. She brushed her knuckles back and forth across her mouth, lost in thought. Taako laid his head on her shoulder, and she instantly bolted upwards to standing.

 

“Hey, you know what?” she said. Taako just blinked at her, and she continued.

 

“We’re _awesome_ at cooking. Even auntie said it. Are we’re only gonna get better, too!”

 

She looked at Taako expectantly.

 

“Yeah, ‘course we are,” he said, still sniffling a bit. “So?”

 

“Sooooo…” she said, making a sweeping gesture. “So why not do something about it? We don’t have to stay with any of these people. Let’s take our cooking and _go._ ”

 

Taako raised an eyebrow.

 

“Wh… what?”

 

“I mean it!” Lup was practically bouncing now, feet shuffling on the kitchen tiles. “We can join up with people who need a chef! Go somewhere else! Save up and start our own restaurant! Take our cooking on the road! We’ll be famous!”

 

Taako laughed as her story got wilder.

 

“Seriously, Taako, we can do this,” she said. “Why not? What’s the alternative, an orphanage somewhere? No _thanks_.”

 

Taako’s face fell. He bit his lip, considering. He could hear the mumbles of the adults talking in the next room over, and something like hatred grew inside him.

 

“I… yeah. You’re right. We can do this.”

 

Lup beamed, full on bouncing now with excitement.

 

“Sweet! So what’s our first step? We should leave tomorrow. No, the day after. Gather some supplies. We could… we could ask around and see if anyone’s hiring. We could… I don’t know…”

 

“We need some sort of hook,” said Taako, rising to his legs, trembling slightly. “The twin thing is cute, I mean, people love twins, but something else. Should we… should we give out samples or something?”

 

“Hell yeah! They’ve gotta try our curry, we make the best curry.”

 

“Yeah! All our ingredients have still gotta be here somewhere, you _know_ none of the others have gone near a spice in the past few days.”

 

“It’s disgusting.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“They’re disgusting.”

 

“You’ve got that right.”

 

“They’re… Taako, wait.”

 

Lup grabbed Taako’s arm, staring him in the eyes pretty intensely. He frowned, wiggling out of her grasp.

 

“Wh… what is it?”

 

“Taako, we need _money_ ,” she hissed. “Auntie left us _money._ We have to get it before they do.”

 

She gestured towards the next room over, urgently, and Taako swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.

 

“You think… we should steal it or something?”

 

“You can’t steal something that’s _yours_.”

 

Taako nodded, slowly, and Lup whirled around, sneaking down the hallway with wide steps. Taako followed behind her, stomach bubbling with nerves and sadness and guilt.

 

“Her vault’s in behind the dresser here,” said Lup, gesturing. “Help… help me move this…”

 

She grunted as she heaved her weight against the edge of the dresser, slipping backwards on the hardwood in her socks.

 

Taako walked up beside her, leaning up on the dresser with all of his weight. Slowly, it started to move, making a horrible scraping noise. Then it slid forward all at once, crashing into the side wall. Taako and Lup slipped to the floor in a spectacular tangle of limbs. Lup laughed, pushing herself up, then helped Taako, who was whining and rubbing at his head.

 

“Okay, it’s right here. Any idea what the password might be?”

 

“Math is so not my thing,” said Taako. “What do you think?”

 

“This isn’t math,” said Lup. “It’s just numbers.”

 

“Same diff. Try her birthday I guess?”

 

Lup tried it, tugging at the door a few times before shaking her head. She tried a few more combinations, other dates and numbers she’d known her aunt to use in the past.

 

“No dice. What else?” she huffed, standing back with her hands on her hips.

 

“Um… what about…”

 

Taako stepped forward, fiddling with the dial. He entered a few numbers, then tugged on the door. It slid open, effortlessly, and Lup gasped.

 

“Holy cow, Taako! What did you do?”

 

“It was our birthday,” said Taako, slinking backwards, rubbing at his eyes.

 

Lup frowned, then stuck her arm into the safe, pulling out a wad of cash.

 

“Check it out!” she hissed. “These are all hundred-and-fifties! That’s wild, right? We’re rich! We’re gonna…”

 

“HEY!”

 

The air rushed out of Lup like a physical punch, she wheeled around to face the bedroom door, thrown open to the red face of one of their other aunts.

 

“What the _fuck_ do you two think you’re doing?” she screeched, spit flying from her mouth in gross globs. Everyone stood frozen for a moment, Lup’s mind whirling through a thousand thoughts as Taako stood rooted with fear, and their mean aunt snarled at them like an animal.

 

The mean aunt took a step forward, and Lup’s thoughts sharpened into one.

 

“ _Run!”_

 

She yanked on Taako’s arm, and he bolted, rocketing across the room and out of the open, first-floor window. Lup let out a loud bark of laughter before following him, vaulting over the low windowsill like it was nothing.

 

She fell in behind Taako, arms pumping, fist still clenched around a handful of bills. They ran off of the property, into a forest that bordered their home. They ran as trees whipped at their face, and tore their fancy clothes. They ran through mud and down slippery hills and out onto a footpath. They ran into a town, and then they ran more.

 

They felt dampness on their feet, chilled in the wind, numbing them to all sensation. The world faded to whisps of colour and the sounds of their breathing as they ran, and ran, and ran.

 

Eventually, Taako tasted some sort of lung blood in his mouth, and he slowed, gasping for breath. Lup ricocheted up behind him, colliding with him and knocking them both to the ground.

 

They stayed there for a while, lying on someone’s lawn, panting with their arms tangled and their heads pressed together. Lup tucked her fistful of money into her dress pocket, then laid her palms across her stomach. She felt it rise and fall with each shallow breath, the chilly air burning her nose and mouth. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and hair stuck to it where it had fallen out of her bun.

 

Suddenly, and without any reason, Lup started to laugh. Loud, obnoxious, cutting through the cold and heavy night air. Taako joined her, and then they were both laughing, struggling for breath and rolling around and knocking their arms together in the dark of night.

 

“Well… that was a thing,” said Lup, finally, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

 

“Yeah,” said Taako, sitting up and doing his best to brush grass out of his hair. Lup leaned forward, plucking at it, helping, and he did the same with hers. Their breathing settled down, and the silence of the night closed in on them, and they shivered as reality started to settle in.

 

“I think we’re… I think we’re fucked, Lulu,” said Taako, quietly. This triggered a new round of laughs from Lup. She’d never heard Taako swear before.

 

“We sure are,” she said.

 

“But we’re not in an orphanage,” said Taako.

 

“Nope.”

 

“And we’re not with our relatives anymore.”

 

“Double nope.”

 

“So… s… so that’s good, then.”

 

Lup leaned forward, resting her chin on Taako’s shoulder, pulling him into the longest and gentlest hug they’d shared in forever. She felt him start to tremble around her, sniffling again, and she choked back her own tears, past the painful lump that now lived in her throat.

 

“Okay, so this isn’t exactly according to plan,” she whispered. And she broke away, getting slowly to her feet. She helped Taako up. They stood there for a while, just holding hands, taking in their surroundings.

 

They seemed to be in the centre of a smaller neighbourhood, but some bigger roads criss crossed a few houses away, and Lup pointed to it.

 

“See that? There’s gotta be something at the end of that big road, there. A downtown or something.”

 

Taako nodded, even though he had no idea if that was true. It was all they had to go on.

 

The two walked along the road for a while, listening to the sounds of night. Bugs chirped. A wolf howled, somewhere. Taako shivered. Lup finally let a few tears fall, but stayed facing forward, so Taako wouldn’t notice.

 

Sure enough, they eventually arrived somewhere, although it wasn’t a downtown. Lup spun around towards Taako, eyes glinting in the moonlight as she gestured behind her.

 

“It… it’s a caravan!” she hissed. “Look!”

 

Sure enough, a series of tents and vehicles were cobbled together ahead, a single guard’s head bobbing in sleep. Taako’s heart leapt into his throat. So this was it, then?

 

“What are they doing here?” he whispered, glancing at the tents nervously.

 

“They’re actors, I think,” said Lup. “See that?”

 

She gestured to a large half-tent, with a stage elevated in the centre. A clothesline nearby sported garish costumes from the olden times.

 

Taako didn’t say anything, and Lup didn’t say anything, and they stood there for a while. She took his hand, and he took hers, and they just stared, both knowing that this was their only chance, neither willing to take the first step.

 

The guard mumbled in his sleep, and Taako nearly jumped out of his skin. Lup tugged at his hand, and they crept past the guard, towards what appeared to be a food wagon. She looked at the wagon, then at Taako, and tilted her head. He shrugged.

 

She dropped his hand, then went up to peek in the window. She turned around and waved him over.

 

Taako tiptoed up to her, peeking in the window beside her. The space inside was actually sort of nice. Smaller, maybe, than their kitchen at home, but with some good cookware. A bowl of veggies. Flowers on the window ledge. A human woman dozed on a futon.

 

Lup flashed Taako a small smile, then took his hand again, tugging him onward.

 

Eventually, they came across a covered wagon. Lup dared to lift up the tarp, glancing around and finding nothing of note. Just a whole lot of hay.

 

Everyone they’d seen here so far was human, which was good news if the twins needed to make a hasty escape. They had the advantage of dark vision. It was one of the very few things of use their family had given them.

 

“Welp, I guess this is us,” whispered Lup, gesturing up towards the bed of hay. Taako wrinkled his nose, and she frowned, tapping him in the small of the back with her palm.

 

“Get up there.”

 

He looked to her one last time, and she stared back. A million tiny thoughts crossed between them, but Lup’s bolder gaze won out. Taako sighed, jumping up to the hay and wiggling his way atop it. Lup followed, instantly itchy as the hay dug into her exposed skin and snagged on the torn fabric of her dress.

 

They just sat there for a while, staring at each other with hearts thundering. Eventually, Lup collapsed backwards, allowing herself to settle in. She was dirty and crusty and scratched up and exhausted. It was the middle of the night, and she wanted nothing more than to curl up and forget the world until morning. A whimper escaped her as the events of the night overtook her, then the events of the last few days. Could it really have been just a week ago that their aunt had wished them goodnight, kissed their foreheads, told them she loved them? Lup remembered hunching over her aunt’s bed, feeding her broth and changing her towels as she faded away, sending her off for the night. A tear slipped out. Then another one.

 

“I love you, Lulu,” said Taako, wiggling up beside her, body trembling with his own tears.

 

“Mm.”

 

She wrapped her arms around him, and they settled in, cuddled together in their itchy, cold, and scary new home.

 

“I love you too, Taako.”

 

The sound of his crying lulled her to sleep. No matter what happened tomorrow, at least she’d have him to help her through it.

 

The next day came harsh, bright, and all too soon. With time, they would be discovered. They would be taken in with a yell and a panic, the caravan having already travelled far from where the kids had stowed away. Negotiations, more yelling, and a proof of skill, and, with time, they were cooking for the caravan.

 

This would last a few months, before they moved on to the next caravan, the patience of the old one stretching thin amongst those they insulted and cheated, as two hurt and broken kids alone in the world are wont to do.

 

Time wore on. Scenery and characters changed, like actors in a play. The twins grew older, and older still. Learning, changing, and fighting for everything that came to them.

 

They stayed strong. They found this strength in one another, and they laughed through it all.

 

Over two hundred years after that cold night in the covered wagon, Taako held a bowl out to his sister, giving it a small shake.

 

It was full of greenish spice, and Lup leaned forward to look at it from her perch on the countertop, where she had been loudly critiquing his every move as he prepared dinner.

 

“Shut up and try this.”

 

“Ooh, is it 4:20 already?”

 

Taako frowned, shaking it at her again, weirdly serious. Lup shrugged. So he’d ignored her awesome weed joke. His loss.

 

Lup leaned forward, making a huge show of licking her finger before sticking it in the bowl. Taako ignored this. She licked some of the spice off her fingertip, instantly gasping in astonishment.

 

“Th… this is…”

 

“Yep,” said Taako, waving a wooden spoon at her. “It’s our aunt’s special spice. I told you I’d find it someday.”

 

“Taako, it’s _perfect_ ,” Lup said, eyes fogging up with the ghost of two-hundred-year-old tears.

 

“Natch.”

 

She took another pinch of it, sampling it with closed eyes.

 

“This… seriously, this is incredible. What the fuck is in it, anyway?”

 

Taako gestured to the counter beside him, where he’d lined up canisters of fourteen different spices. Lup hopped off the opposite counter, walking over to examine the containers, one by one.

 

“Shit, bro,” she said, sniffing at a few of them. “This is genius-level stuff. You’re a genius.”

 

“Mmmm, you flatter me,” said Taako, clearly loving it. He turned away from her so she wouldn’t see his face. Things were getting way too sentimental in here.

 

“And all along I thought it was just basil, thyme, and love,” said Lup, grinning at the back of Taako’s head as he popped some chicken out of the oven. He looked back at her, wearing a grin matching her own.

 

“Well, there’s a fair amount of that, too, of course.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Now help me take this stuff out.”

 

Lup grabbed a few bowls of side dishes, and the two left the kitchen, setting out a gorgeous meal for Magnus, Merle, Kravitz, Barry, Angus, and Ren.

 

A fair amount of love, indeed.


End file.
